Wednesday, June 1, 2016

A Choice Not An Echo

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal last week, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan argued that young Americans in particular should appreciate the power of choice:

Think of all the things you get to do in your life, whether it's buying something, whether it's ordering movie tickets, signing up for classes. You name what you can do on this thing, and you want to subscribe to a political philosophy that denies you choices, that denies you the ability to customize your life in things like health care, education, and retirement? So why on earth would a young person, who enjoys the liberty and freedom of today's society and technology, subscribe to a political philosophy that says: "There are smarter people than you who can lord over us in bureaucracies in Washington and make decisions for us on how our economy is run and how our communities are organized"?

Well said. Why would anyone, young or middle-aged or old, yield to those who seek to circumscribe rightful choices that would improve Americans' lives?

So why is Paul Ryan unwilling to step up to provide us a third choice to the unpalatable alternatives of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton? He ran for vice president in 2012. He could quickly assemble the resources and organization to compete as an independent in 2016, on behalf of the principles and standards he fought for only four years ago.

And if Paul Ryan finds it too burdensome to run, why has he, in concert with so many other "leaders," gone out of his way to discourage others from offering the American people another choice? Because it's admirable to challenge taxi oligopolies but not the oligopoly of the ossified political parties and their eccentric nominating processes? Because it's important to take on the teachers' unions but not the party structures? Because it's praiseworthy to fight against the duopoly of Fannie and Freddie but not against that of Hillary and Donald?